Election Date Referendum Passes by Wide Margin
By GEORGE BROMLEY
Falls Church Times Staff
November 8, 2011
Falls Church voters today overwhelmingly approved a referendum that authorizes the City to move its municipal elections from May to November. The May 2012 election will be the last. The first November election will be held in 2013.
Unofficial returns show the referendum approved, 1,738 to 874. Voters in four of the City’s five wards favored the measure by 2:1 margins. The vote was closer in Ward 2 (Oakwood), but still substantially in favor.
The vote to move the elections to November tracked very closely to the City vote in 35th District Senate race, where Democrat Richard Saslaw outpolled Republican Robert Sarvis and Independent Green Elizabeh Pettigrew 1,730 to 873 (Sarvis – 801, Pettigrew – 72).
Incumbent Delegate Jim Scott and candidate for Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos were unopposed. Scott received 2,071 votes. Stamos, who will succeed Richard Trodden, received 2,099.
Turnout on a perfect autumn day was 30.71%, a slight increase from the 28% level achieved in 2007, the last election where only General Assembly contests were on the ballot. A total of 2,658 of the City’s 8,655 registered voters participated.
Unofficial Totals By Ward
Referendum (Yes – No)
Ward 1 – 453 – 213
Ward 2 – 215 – 153
Ward 3 – 270 – 133
Ward 4 – 361 – 185
Ward 5 – 301 – 153
CAP – 138 – 37
Total 1,738 – 874
35th District Senate (Saslaw – Sarvis – Pettigrew)
Ward 1 – 459 – 193 – 17
Ward 2 – 247 – 108 – 10
Ward 3 – 250 – 142 – 10
Ward 4 – 351 – 171 – 19
Ward 5 – 289 – 151 – 10
CAP – 134 – 36 – 6
Total 1,730 – 801 – 72
53rd District Delegate (Scott – Write-in)
Ward 1 – 543 – 32
Ward 2 – 288 – 13
Ward 3 – 309 – 17
Ward 4 – 424 – 21
Ward 5 – 357 – 19
CAP – 150 – 1
Total 2071 – 103
Commonwealth’s Attorney (Stamos – Write-in)
Ward 1 – 540 – 24
Ward 2 – 280 – 7
Ward 3 – 321 – 9
Ward 4 – 444 – 14
Ward 5 – 362 – 7
CAP – 152 – 0
Total 2099 – 61
By George Bromley
November 8, 2011
Falls Church in the News
I’m just glad it is over.
Lord help us….to draw a hockey analogy….a successful CBC-driven power play.
The VOTERS have done their job. Let’s move on.
Thank you to ALL who voted Tuesday on the referendum to do local voting in November. We hope for elections to be genuine community conversations that help build a consensus for action. This one was that: Each side argued its case forcefully and the voters delivered a verdict that left no doubt we should start electing to City Council and School Board in Novembers, starting in 2013.
Remarkably, the referendum question — densely worded, and at the tail end of the ballot — was so important to citizens that it appears to have attracted MORE voters than the top-of-the-ticket contested race for state Senate (2612 to 2608).
Now, attention must quickly turn to informing voters about the City’s next election for Council and School Board, on May 1, 2012 — less than 25 weeks from now.
For many citizens, it will seem peculiar that we voted Tuesday to elect in Novembers, and the next Council and School Board contest will be in…May. But the challenge of explaining that oddity can be an opportunity to more deeply engage citizens in dialogue on the important issues and hard choices of the coming May election.